Breathing together.
“The most important part of the work of mindfulness is to keep your practice alive. The way you do that is to do it. It needs to become part of your life, in the same way that eating is or working is. We keep the practice alive by making time for being, for non-doing, no matter how much re-arranging it takes. Making time for formal practice every day is like feeding yourself every day. It is that important.” Jon Kabat-Zinn “Full Catastrophe Living” ch 34
The power of community
While it can be difficult to maintain a daily mindfulness practice alone, it is a joy and enriching to practice as part of a mindfulness community.
Why our good intentions often fail
If you have taken an 8-week Mindfulness class, aside from learning the fundamentals of meditation practice, you possibly also shared with many others in learning how wonderfully nurturing it feels to practice together as part of a community, and how frustratingly difficult it is to find time for the daily home practice.
Even with access to many Mindfulness apps, and thousands of pre-recorded meditations on social media, it takes almost superhuman discipline and determination to establish a daily formal mindfulness practice. Mindfulness on the move might become one more distraction that pulls us away from direct engagement with the lived experience of each moment. We plug in, close our eyes, the words drift through our mind, the world around us becomes a blur.
And, honestly, though we all aspire to sitting serene in our special meditation corner for our daily oasis of mindful recharge and personal connection….
…….you are maybe more like me, and your radical act of mindfulness for the day is sudden awareness that you’ve been scrolling social media for hours after sitting down to find that perfect meditation to suit your mood, or you got caught up in chores or work and completely forgot about meditating, until it’s wayyy too late.
The healing power of community
So, how do we maintain a daily meditation practice?
Timers, reminders, calendars, planners, self-criticism, self-motivation can all be useful but they all stumble in the face of the million distractions and exhaustions of modern life.
The most rewarding way I have found to maintain a daily formal meditation practice is to join a group (or lead a group) that meets regularly for community practice. We build community, we support each other, we are nourished, enriched, healed and held by the caring power of compassionate community.
With a demanding job and long working hours one of the most convenient ways I have found to engage in daily practice is to join online sanghas. There are many online sanghas offering free mindfulness sits, meeting at times to suit all time zones and work schedules. From the comfort of your own home, you can connect with other members of the international mindfulness community, build friendships and build your mindfulness practice at the same time. You can even join a quick online meditation during your lunch break, hugely more replenishing than scrolling social media.
Building it forward
Azur Living Mindfulness
Breathing Space Weekly online Community practice.
Growing and empowering
The most enriching approach to maintaining a daily mindfulness practice has been, for me, to engage in ongoing deepening and diversification of my mindfulness practice. Taking my mindfulness skills into practice while expanding horizons, learning new skills, taking on new challenges and immersing myself in a wonderful galaxy of online mindfulness communities, cultivating skills in non-violent communication, self-compassion, mindfulness in education, mindful movement.
How would you like to build your daily practice?
Join our Breathing Space online community of Mindfulness practice through this link.
Azur Living Mindfulness: Mindful Living, working and well being 